


A Very Short Rage Fic

by Birds_wings_fire



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 19:11:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18675745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birds_wings_fire/pseuds/Birds_wings_fire
Summary: A thing you write in 10 minutes when you're angry about unnecessary fridging and feeling veryyy bitter. Endgame spoilers, obvs.





	A Very Short Rage Fic

Steve’s about to hop in the contrived quantum-time-machine to return the stones to their rightful place when a mean right hook throws him to the side. He’s not hurt, exactly, just surprised.

Maria Hill, however, is pretty sure she’s just broken her entire hand on America’s Chiseled Jaw.

“Um,” Steve picks his words carefully.

“Hang tight, Rogers,” Hill grimaces, “I gotta do a thing first.” She narrows her eyes at Bruce, standing slack-jawed at the controls.

“Here,” she says, handing him a scrap of paper, “This is the exact moment I need you to send me to.”

Bruce just stares.

“Hill, have you lost your fool mind?” Sam asks, breaking the moment of confused silence.

Steve, who has finally understood, moves toward Maria, speaking in soft, even tones. “I miss her too, Hill, I do, but this isn’t going to work.”

Maria rolls her eyes as she pulls a bandage and cold pack out of her bag and begins to gingerly wrap up her throbbing, certainly broken hand. She clearly came prepared.

Ignoring Steve, Maria turns to Bruce. “Just press the right buttons, Banner, and I’ll handle the rest.”

“It won’t work,” Steve tells her again, but Bruce’s mind is working overtime now, weighing the possibilities.

“It worked with Gamora,” he muses, “Accidentally, but still...”

Everyone is silent, thinking, as Maria huffs impatiently.

Steve nods. “It’s a huge risk, Hill, I should be the one--”

“No fucking way, Rogers.” Maria is standing tall, her shoulders squared. “If it works, I’ll be the one to make it work. And if it doesn’t,” she swallows hard, “then there’s nothing left anyway.”

Another minute passes in silence. Steve considers simply moving Maria out of the way, but the set of her jaw, the cold clear look in her eyes, is enough to convince him. He nods at Bruce.

“Okay, but listen, you have to make sure you’re in the right place when--”

“I know how it works, Banner, just do it.”

Bruce busies himself over the controls and in an instant, in an unimaginable moment, Maria blinks out of existence.

Steve holds his breath while Bruce counts down the five seconds. It shouldn’t work, it can’t, but Steve can’t help letting the hope eat him alive from the inside anyway.

A flash. A movement of atoms, of light and dark, of bodies appearing from nothing, growing into the earth from thin air.

Maria’s good hand is clamped on Natasha’s arm, pulling, dragging her back into this world of dirt, blood, and sky.

Natasha blinks in the sunlight, sways on her feet. She’s dazed but undoubtedly, blessedly, unreservedly real. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich drops from her hand.

For a long second, Maria and Natasha look only at each other, at the clear miracle of it all, brought back from the dust.

Steve can’t hold back the sob, the bright sunflower burst of tears flowerings through his entire body. Bruce breathes very carefully, hardly daring to believe.

“What...the FUCK just happened?” Natasha looks around at them all, bewildered.

“I have to do everything myself,” Maria glares, “That’s what happened.”


End file.
